This invention relates to telecommunications apparatus and, in particular, to network interface units and building entrance protector units.
Network interface units are known in the art and one such unit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,440 ('440) of Daoud, and which is herein incorporated by reference. As discussed in the '440 patent, network interface units constitute the demarcation between the customer's equipment and the telephone network. In buildings including multiple subscribers, the network interface unit is typically mounted in a basement and includes an array of customer bridges, each bridge being coupled to an individual subscriber line. The bridges are typically coupled to the phone network through an RJ11 jack and plug (known in the art) so that the customer can plug a working phone into the jack to determine if any problems lie in the customer or network side of the telecommunications system.
Network interface units typically also include a building entrance protector portion which comprises a cable splice chamber and a protector field device for providing surge protection for each customer. Depending on the size or type of the components; e.g., fiber optics, wireless telephone, or coaxial equipment, to be mounted in a network interface unit to accommodate the needs of the customers in the building, the dimensions of the network interface unit may need to be adjusted, requiring various sized housings for different types of components, leading to different sized network interface units. This may be very costly, especially if the network interface unit is made of plastic. More particularly, a change to a plastic part, one network interface unit for each different type of components commonly requires expensive new tooling. It is desirable to design a network interface unit that can be easily adapted to its various dimensions so as to accommodate the needs of customers of a building or those of the telecommunications systems.